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Decorating your bass, anyone done it?


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I have a '01 3 band Stingray, Black/black/maple. Its a 'cooking' one, no birds eye maple or anything special but it plays and sounds perfect. Bit bored with black now but am growing a bond with it.

A friend of mine does air brushing for a living as a film prosthetics artist. She offered to decorate my bass, I just need to think what she should do.

Anyone else paint/decorate theirs? Love to see your pics...

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I once turned my old 70s Rick 4001 from plain black to black & white stripes, but I did it with a low tack self adhesive tape so the process was completely reversible (Don't have any photo's unfortunately).

Personally I'd think twice about doing anything that would require a lot of work and/or expense to change if & when you got bored with it or decided to sell the bass.

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[quote name='Ninja_Baby' timestamp='1347013869' post='1795947']
I'm in the process of having one of my basses painted by this guy [url="http://popbangcolour.com/"]http://popbangcolour.com/[/url]

He paints using remote control cars. Impressive stuff.
[/quote]

Wow, would like to see the results!

Still looking for ideas, funnily enough, fancied black and white stripes like RhysP and also wondered about tape but I'd like a good finish and feel rebellious against being worried by resale value.

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Back in the 80s (never a good start to a sentence about decorating basses, I know, but...) I had an Aria ZZB which was half black and half white on the long explorer diagonal. I went for an EVH 'Women and Children First' stripe job with adhesive, white on the black half and black on the white. I used adhesive in case I wanted to put it back stock, but I got so many offers I could have sold it a dozen times over.

This was the 80s, tho... ;)

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I did this one a couple of years back. Was originally sunburst with white pickguard.

[IMG]http://i1032.photobucket.com/albums/a407/ImaginaryEvil/Instruments/SDC10401-1.jpg[/IMG]

And I did this one as well, but it's a guitar - I'm sure that counts though :)

[IMG]http://i1032.photobucket.com/albums/a407/ImaginaryEvil/Snapbucket/image_0001Yh.jpg[/IMG]

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[quote name='martin8708' timestamp='1347261597' post='1798477'] There are a few EVH art guitars by Charvel Custom shop on the bay at the moment , I also like their yellow Bengal tiger stripe bass . Sandberg website also has a gallery for their Custom shop airbrush art work if you are looking for ideas and inspiration . [/quote]


Yep, thanks for this, especially the 5 strings here:
http://www.sandberg-guitars.de/basscat-overview/customshop/airb-paint-1/airb-paint-3

Looked at the EVHs on the 'bay, also looked at the prices! There's a distinctive style going on there.

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[quote name='zero9' timestamp='1347277477' post='1798661']
Why not get a replacement body, which your friend could paint. You can then just swap the bits over and reverse the process should you ever want to sell the bass (you can then also keep the 'artwork' body and hang it on the wall)
[/quote]

Hmm, its certainly a good thought, but somehow, it wouldn't be my bass. Also, I suppose there are cheap 'Vintage' or other copies which come up on ebay at times but a Stingray body's not going to be too easy to come by.

Got me thinking though as, somehow, its not using a bass with decoration as wanting to decorate my bass. Or something like that.

The chequie plate flames are pretty amazing, laser cut?

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[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1347011953' post='1795913']
I once turned my old 70s Rick 4001 from plain black to black & white stripes, but I did it with a low tack self adhesive tape so the process was completely reversible (Don't have any photo's unfortunately).

Personally I'd think twice about doing anything that would require a lot of work and/or expense to change if & when you got bored with it or decided to sell the bass.
[/quote]
Ditto the above but be careful, I used scissors and black insulating tape to turn my all white Fender Jazz Bass USA American Traditional into a zebra ( i must have been mad, but it suited our band , it looked very cool and was unique round my way) but.......... when I removed them, the guitar had yellowed and you could see where the stripes used to be. They were only on from 2001 to 2005 and I can still see where they were now!
Before 2001

Zebra Style 2001-2005
Current Classic Style

Edited by chapsimon
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+1 on doing something thats easily reversable.

I got a cheap scratchplate for my jazz and gave it to my daughter and told her to go mad on it! This is what she came up with, so my original tort plate is in storage now!

[IMG]http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn142/matbaldwin/20120901_114300_Hagrid_Round.jpg[/IMG]

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[quote name='monkeynuts' timestamp='1347434673' post='1800637']
+1 on doing something thats easily reversable.

I got a cheap scratchplate for my jazz and gave it to my daughter and told her to go mad on it! This is what she came up with, so my original tort plate is in storage now!


[/quote]That's really great work by your daughter. Bass looks ace. I'm going to go the whole hog though, its not a sacred bass, just a bass so I'm not precious about it. I really like the idea of an expert job like this done by someone you know, you have a talented daughter!

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[quote name='chapsimon' timestamp='1347382591' post='1800056']
Ditto the above but be careful, I used scissors and black insulating tape to turn my all white Fender Jazz Bass USA American Traditional into a zebra ( i must have been mad, but it suited our band , it looked very cool and was unique round my way) but.......... when I removed them, the guitar had yellowed and you could see where the stripes used to be. They were only on from 2001 to 2005 and I can still see where they were now!
Before 2001

Zebra Style 2001-2005
Current Classic Style
[/quote]

This is the sort of thing, I love the zebra. Where the stripes stuck on?

('Classic style' is really nice too!)

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[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1347477776' post='1801467']
That's really great work by your daughter. Bass looks ace. I'm going to go the whole hog though, its not a sacred bass, just a bass so I'm not precious about it. I really like the idea of an expert job like this done by someone you know, you have a talented daughter!
[/quote]

Thanks, it came out far better than I expected to be honest!!

Now the rest of the band want her to make them scratchplates as well, we'll be sponsered by Marvel at this rate! :lol:

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[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1347536682' post='1802071']
The key thing is NOT to paint the neck! Also, if you paint the body, sand it first to get a good grip for the new paint and laquer over the paint or it will chip off in no time. Most importantly, don't paint the neck!!!
[/quote]

If its a maple fingerboard it'll be varnished anyway and so whether its paint or varnish, what's the difference?

(Actually, depending which one I do, the Stingray currently at risk has an oil sealed neck, so paint won't stick to that.)

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